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The Washington Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of a county document recording surcharge that financed affordable housing, eviction prevention, and housing stability services. A trade association of homebuilders challenged the surcharge as a property tax that violates the uniformity requirement of the Washington Constitution. The court held that the surcharge was a tax because…

The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed a Board of Tax Appeals decision that found an out-of-state bank had a sufficient physical presence in the state to be subject to Washington’s Business & Occupation (B&O) tax. The bank did not have any employees or property in Washington, but issued credit cards, including private label credits cards…

On March 23, 2023, the Washington Department of Revenue issued an emergency rule-making order. The purpose of the emergency rule was to make the public aware that certain of the Department’s administrative rules concerning remote sellers’ sales and use tax nexus and minimum nexus thresholds for the state’s business and occupation tax may be outdated.

On February 27, 2023, the Washington Court of Appeals held that a provider of pharmacy services and pharmacy benefits services (PBM) to its affiliate’s enrollees met the insurance business exemption to the Business and Occupation Tax because its activities were at least functionally related to insurance business. The taxpayer fulfilled the PBM services required by…

The Washington Court of Appeals held that a company’s collection of data from electric and natural gas meters constituted data processing services exempt from the retail sales tax. The taxpayer collected data from meters used by an energy company’s customers, converted the data into a usable form, and transmitted the data to the energy company…

The King County Superior Court in Washington dismissed a class action lawsuit which alleged that Kroger, Whole Foods, Safeway, and Town & Country Markets improperly collected sales tax on exempt items. In dismissing the claim, the court found that the sales tax at issue is an excise tax. Further, the court found that the exclusive…

On November 4, 2022, the Washington Department of Revenue adopted WAC 458-20-290, a regulation explaining the state’s workforce education investment surcharge on select advanced computing businesses. The regulation defines a select advanced computing business as “a person who is a member of an affiliated group with at least one member of the affiliated group engaging…

The Administrative Review and Hearings Division of the Washington Department of Revenue recently issued Determination No. 21-0055 in which it determined receipts from the provision of genealogy services should be apportioned based on the customer location for purposes of the Business and Occupation Tax. The genealogy company performs research, primarily online, investigating the customer’s ancestry,…

The Washington Department of Revenue’s Administrative Review and Hearings Division recently ruled that a company’s account access services provided to credit unions constituted digital automated services subject to sales tax.

The taxpayer provided an online banking platform and an automated phone system to member credit unions, which in turn provided those services to their individual…